Western Australia Rangelands Conservation Initiative Site #20

Western Australia Rangelands Conservation Initiative Site #20 is a Human-Induced Regeneration (HIR) project located in the remote Gascoyne region of Western Australia, approximately 300km east of the coastal town of Carnarvon. Registered in September 2021, the project covers a vast area of 114,130 hectares within the Shire of Upper Gascoyne. The region is characterized by its remote pastoral leases, where large-scale sheep and cattle grazing has historically been the primary land use.

Human-Induced Regeneration projects involve changing land management practices to facilitate the regrowth of native forest on land where vegetation has been suppressed for at least 10 years. For this specific site, the activities include managing the timing and extent of grazing livestock and humanely controlling feral animals, likely goats, which are prevalent in the region and consume young saplings. By reducing this grazing pressure, the project aims to allow local species, such as Mulga (Acacia aneura) and other native shrubs, to regenerate into permanent forest cover.

The environmental conditions in the Upper Gascoyne are semi-arid to arid, with an average annual rainfall of approximately 200mm, which is highly variable and often cyclone-dependent. The terrain typically consists of red sandy loam soils, stony plains, and low rocky ranges, supporting open woodlands and scrub. Notably, this project is part of a broader "Rangelands Conservation Initiative" managed by Terra Carbon (a subsidiary of GreenCollar), which aggregates multiple sites across the Western Australian outback. A variation to the project in June 2023 removed specific areas from the carbon estimation area, a common adjustment to exclude non-compliant land or infrastructure.